Nightmares and the Comfort of Friends
by Loonyloops
Summary: When your job is fighting dinosaurs and occasionally watching people die there will be consequences. Sometimes that means nightmares. That is when friends are important. **The warning is inside.
1. After New World

**Warning: There are multiple major character deaths throughout the first half of the chapter. They are nightmares after all.**

 **A/N I promise there is a happy-ish ending. I think I am incapable of writing a sad ending. There is going to be one more chapter and it will have an even happier ending. I've always thought that there must be some psychological consequences for all the things trauma endured by the team, so here it is.**

 _"No! Abby, no!" Connor yelled as he ran to the large metal door. The mechanical lock clinked into place just as he reached it. Abby was there at the small round window, behind her were seven raptors feeding on what used to be a security guard. She was crying and his heart was breaking as she said his name. The thick metal did not allow him to hear her voice, just as she could not hear his. He felt the tears flowing down his face unchecked as he stared at his wife's face. She placed her hand on the glass, her brand new wedding ring glinting in the fluorescent lights._

 _He read her lips as she said 'I love you'. He screamed it back to her wishing she could hear him, even a little. Then the raptors noticed her. He never turned away, even as her body was torn apart. He could not turn his back on her. He did not want to lose her so soon. He wanted a lifetime. He wanted to take her place._

Conner woke with a cry on his lips. He hoped he had not woken Abby. He turned his head to look as her. With the dream so fresh in his mind he half expected to see a bloody mess on her pillow. Her sleeping face, free from blood and pain, lit only by the moonlight was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. Her bare left hand lied on the pillow next to her face. The ghosts of raptors both from the past and from his dream haunted him and he felt the old need to keep watch as Abby slept. He kissed the hand on her pillow before quietly climbing out of bed. He pulled on a t-shirt and stepped onto the balcony to keep watch.

~~~oo0oo~~~

 _"Abby!"_

 _Connor's scream interrupted Abby's campfire preparations. She scrambled out of the thicket that had become their home. She emerged just in time to see Connor running toward her from the creek. He yelled her name again as a spinosaurus came crashing through the trees behind him._

 _"Run!" she shouted desperately._

 _She watched in horror as the dinosaur caught up to him. He did not take his eyes from her as he ran. She could see in his face that he was concentrating completely on getting back to her. She knew he would not make it. Before he had taken ten more steps the spinosaurus caught up to him and lunged. Its giant jaws clamped around Connor's torso. She yelled his name even as his strangled cry reached her ears. She watched as the creature shook him._

Abby awoke with a gasp. She reached across the bed for Connor, but her hand only felt a cold pillow. With her heart pounding wildly in her chest she looked around the bedroom. She saw him standing on the balcony silhouetted by the moon. She got out of bed and moved toward the balcony. Connor did not turn to her; he merely held out his arm and gathered her into his side.

"Spinosaurus?"

"Yeah. Raptors?"

"Yeah."

They let the silence surround them as they held each other. Side by side they settled in to keep watch together through the rest of the night.

~~~oo0oo~~~

 _Becker was on trial for murder. He stood as hundreds of people stood in line to accuse him of their deaths. The man that faced him had been shot before Becker could rescue him from the angry youth with the gun. Without a word spoken he heard the charge before the man disappeared to be replaced by a thirteen year old girl killed while she served Saturday detention at her school. After her came one of the men under his command at the ARC. He had been knocked seventy feet to his death from the roof of an apartment building by a pterodactyl. The next two occupants in the line stepped forward together. One was Jess. She was struggling to breathe and being held up by Lester whose side was bloody from the future predator attack._

 _"But you didn't die," he objected._

 _"No, but we could have," she gasped, "and it would have been your fault."_

 _There were so many people that it seemed he stood there for hours before the end of the line came into view. The last of his accusers was Sarah._

 _"I'm so sorry," Becker whispered._

 _"It doesn't matter that you're sorry. You should have saved us all," she accused softly before she too disappeared with her words echoing in the empty celestial courtroom. She vanished and he was left alone with her words. He should have saved them._

Becker awoke in a cold sweat with a pounding heart and a lingering sense of desperation. The guilt following him was an old enemy and its judgments bounced around in his head fighting with his only defense. He had tried. If he could have he would have saved them all. He knew, rationally, that all those faces were not people who died because of his actions, or lack thereof. He sat up in his bed and scrubbed his face with both hands in an attempt to rid himself of the last of the dream. There would be no more sleep for him. It was three o'clock in the morning. He had plenty of time to clean his gun. It was a mindless task that took time and repetitive motions. It was the perfect thing to calm his mind.

~~~oo0oo~~~

 _Jess sat at the ADD watching herself run barefoot through the halls of the ARC. She was being hunted by a future predator. On another monitor she watched Abby hold Connor as he died from a gaping wound in his side. Behind her a saber-tooth cat swiped its claws into her back. She died moments after Connor. She glanced back at her monitor and saw herself hiding under a desk. Then she saw Emily on the security camera at the front entrance. A flying creature kept swooping down and tearing at her arms and face with its talons. She was losing so much blood._

 _Jess felt helpless as she watched her friends fighting creatures and dying. She glanced again at herself as she was climbing into a cabinet inside one of the labs. In terror she looked away to the camera that showed Matt fighting a pack of raptors with the leg of a shattered chair. One of the raptors snuck around and bit his leg. He was surrounded as soon as he fell. She felt tears streaming down her cheeks as she looked away. Movement from Emily's monitor showed Jess that she too had fallen. Nauseated she searched the CCTV cameras for Becker. She found him in the empty armory with only an EMD trapped by giant beetles that enjoyed snacking on people. She knew the EMD's did not work on those creatures. His face was grim as she watched him fire the EMD until the end._

 _She was crying hard now as she watched her own monitor. She watched as Lester walked into her lab and the predator struck before he even knew it was there. Then it turned to her hiding place._

Jess woke with tears soaking her pillow. She felt so helpless in her nightmare that the feeling followed her into wakefulness. She picked up her phone out of habit and nearly called Becker just to reassure herself her friends were alright. The phone's time display said it was 3:15. There was no way she was calling him in the middle of the night. Feeling the uselessness closing in around her in the dark she turned on a lamp and cradled her phone as she sank down into her pillows. She was telling herself that her friends were alive and only a phone call away.

~~~oo0oo~~~

 _Emily was standing in her family's parlor wearing her wedding dress. She did not want to marry Henry. She wanted the choice she had never been given. She heard footsteps in the hall. Thinking it is her father coming to collect her, she opened the door to find no one there. She could feel someone watching her. She was scared and began running toward the kitchen, only she never got there. The hallway kept getting longer before it became a hall upstairs. Then she was in the maid's hallway. She kept running from the footsteps behind her, but did not turn around, afraid of who was behind her. She would die if she stopped running._

 _When she finally reached the kitchen door it was locked. She heaved a breath into her tired lungs and gathered her courage before turning around. At once she felt relief flood her mind. It was Matt standing in front of her, but he was not wearing the clothing she knew him to wear. He was wearing the suit Henry wore for their wedding, and he was holding a knife. He smiled a coldly evil smile before he took a step toward her. She backed up until the kitchen door stopped her. She glanced at the doorknob before looking back at Matt hoping to beg for her life, but it was not Matt. It was Ethan. She knew there was no hope as he raised the knife and she screamed._

Emily was not sure if she only screamed in her dream or if she also screamed herself awake. She took a deep breath as she sat up in the bed. Her heart rate slowed and she continued to take slow, deep breaths. She was thankful that it was this particular nightmare and not the one with the tree creeper and the river. She lied back down to attempt sleep once more. Half an hour later with her mind still running down endless hallways she decided a cup of chamomile tea would help her relax. She had become very familiar with Matt's home and was comfortable moving around in the dark as she prepared her drink. She took her mug of tea to a chair by the window and looked out at the city's lights shining so brightly in the night. This world, a time between her own and Matt's, was so strange.

~~~oo0oo~~~

 _The wind was beginning to pick up speed and the noxious air was choking him, but he had to keep searching. He would not give up until he found what he was frantically looking for, even though he did not know exactly what that was. His father was standing beside him seemingly unaffected by the toxic wind._

 _"You have to find it son. It all depends on you."_

 _"What am I looking for? You haven't told me."_

 _"Find it."_

 _Matt turned into the wind toward his father, but he was no longer there. The air was getting worse and he started coughing. His chest and throat were burning and there was a metallic taste in his mouth. It was getting harder for him to breathe between the coughing fits that felt like he was breathing shards of glass. It took all of his energy to keep walking, searching. The coughing took him to his knees within minutes. The metallic taste in his mouth turned to blood. He was going to die without finishing the task his father had given him. He was going to fail._

Matt woke up gasping for air, his body taking more time than his mind to return to reality. He had had this particular nightmare more than once, therefore, he knew he would not be getting anymore sleep that night. He turned on his bedside lamp and picked up the book on his nightstand hoping to occupy his mind until morning. He struggled to finish the chapter he had been reading earlier before setting the book aside, deciding that a cold glass of water might soothe the phantom rawness in his throat, left over from the dream. The clock read 4:30 as he left his bedroom. He saw Emily with a drink of her own staring out the window in the light of the refrigerator. She did not respond to the noise he made getting his own beverage. Quietly, so as not to startle her, he sat in the chair next to hers.

"Can't sleep?"

She jumped, spilling cold tea over her hand. "No. I just – I had a dream and thought a cup of tea would help"

"Did it?"

"Well, it's cold now and I haven't had but one sip, but I think it did. It was a distraction. What about you?"

He looked at her for a moment before deciding on full disclosure. The cold water bottle beckoned and he gulped half the contents before telling her everything he had felt in his dream. It was strange for him to open up to anyone, but in his home, in this time, in the middle of the night it seemed like the right thing to do.

"You know," she said when he finished the last of his water. "After today, I bet we aren't the only ones who can't sleep."

"You're probably right. There's a twenty-four hour coffee shop and bakery a couple of blocks from here. Why don't you go get ready while I text the others? If they're awake I'm sure they will meet us there."

Abby and Connor were wrapped in a blanket on the balcony. They had ignored the patio furniture and were sitting on the concrete next to the railing. In the silence of the very early morning they heard both their phones chime a text message. Wearily they looked at each other before Connor relinquished the blanket so they could both stand.

 _-From Matt_

 _Getting breakfast at the Muffins n More 24 by my apt_

Connor sent a quick reply even as Abby made her way to the bathroom.

Becker had meticulously cleaned each part of his gun and carefully replaced every piece letting the motions relax his body, even as his mind replayed all the accusations from his nightmare. He had decided he would get ready and get to the ARC early and was filling the kettle when he heard his phone in the bedroom.

The text message from Matt almost seemed like a rescue. He quickly responded before forwarding the message to Jess, guessing that she too would be having a rough night. He would never admit to the tiny corner of his brain that just needed to see her and make sure she was indeed alive and well.

Jess was still sitting in her bed holding her phone halfway to dozing off again. Her tears had ceased long ago but she still could not bear to set the phone down, scared she would miss her friends' calls for help if they came. She jumped when the device vibrated in her hand. She shook her head at her own silliness and called up the message from Becker.

 _'How did he know I was awake?'_ She wondered. Then she looked at the shadows on her ceiling making a mental note to check for hidden cameras before deciding no one at the ARC would violate her privacy without her figuring it out. She typed a reply before getting out of bed, still holding her phone.

It was nearly five-thirty when the ARC's core team began walking through the doors of the small twenty-four bakery. Everyone ordered their breakfast and made their way to a couple of tables in the middle of the small eating area. Since most of the patrons at that hour ordered their beverages to go they had the place to themselves. They sat drinking their coffee or tea and eating their pastries until the sun came up. No one spoke, but occasionally someone would nudge their neighbor's shoulder or nod at someone across the table. There was no need to explain to one another why they were there. They simply drew comfort from the presence of their friends and teammates.

Two hours later Jess finally broke the silence. "Well, I might cry if Lester yells at me for being late, so –"

"Yeah," Connor spoke up. "Anybody else want a refill for the road?"

They all agreed that the bakery's drinks were better than the government issue coffee they would get at the ARC and all lined up for a refill. With another dose of caffeine and the support of friendships forged in fire they were able to put the horror of their nightmares behind them and focus on the new day. Now, revived by caffeine and fresh pastries, they each knew they would be able to handle whatever the universe threw at them.


	2. A Tradition is Born

Five Months Later

The incursion had been a nasty one. A herd of raptors had come through an anomaly near a school full of elementary students. The teachers had responded quickly to the alert Jess had put out, but not before the fifteen raptors had inflicted many serious injuries. By the time the team had arrived there were nearly two dozen casualties, about half of which were from one classroom. Emily could be heard crying over the comms as she worked with the others to hunt down the creatures. Abby and Jess were sniffing frequently, and Becker and Connor had both lost their breakfasts. Matt was very unsteady on his feet as he checked a hallway littered with small backpacks and loose homework.

It had turned into a brutal fight and Jess had called in two more teams to help with containing the creatures. Their only bit of luck was that the teachers had locked themselves and their students safely in their classrooms and were staying quiet and not attracting the raptors' attention. It had taken nearly three hours to contain all of them. In the end three of Becker's men ended up in Medical with multiple serious lacerations each.

Everyone else that had responded to the incursion were replaced with a fresh security team to guard the now locked anomaly and ordered to report to the largest conference room the ARC possessed. Lester demanded that Jess be there as well. There was a heavy, silent grief in the atmosphere when Lester made his entrance, reinforcing his opinion that what he was about to say was needed. He then announced that counseling was available to all personnel, and he strongly encouraged, to the point of being mandatory, everyone to avail themselves of that resource. Then he told everyone, that includes you too Jess, to take the rest of the day to regroup. That left the ARC's core team and their coworkers free to relive the horrors of the morning and wonder which nightmares would wake them in the dead of night, if they ever fell asleep.

Connor saved them all from the afternoon and evening ahead of them. As they were headed for the exit in a quiet mob he spoke quietly. "You know, since Emily and Matt aren't exactly from here, and Abby and I were gone for a year there are a lot of movies that we need to catch up on. How about we have a movie marathon at our place? A few movies, some popcorn, maybe a pizza that sounds good, yeah?"

Becker nodded, "Yeah, okay."

Soon everyone but Emily agreed that a movie marathon sounded like a good idea. All the way to their vehicles they filled Emily in on all the good times to be had during a movie marathon. Abby and Connor made a quick stop for snack foods while both Matt, with Emily, and Becker both stopped for drinks. Soon everyone, including Jess found themselves in Connor and Abby's comfortable home arguing over whether to find a movie on Netflix or from Connor's extensive collection. After a healthy debate it was decided that Emily must see the _Lord of the Rings_ trilogy. It was the perfect fantasy movie to escape into, and she could not be a resident of the twenty-first century without seeing it at least once.

Emily watched bewildered as Jess and Abby went room to room collecting all the pillows and comfortable blankets and depositing them in a pile in front of the television while Connor closed all the draperies. Becker recruited Matt to help him fill the refrigerator and freezer with all manner of beverages and ice before piling all the food on the small kitchen table. Then they raided the cupboards for dishes and glasses and putting them on the table as well.

"I thought we were watching the television?" she asked.

"We are," Jess smiled as she gathered a lime green plush pillow a quilt and kicked off her shoes. "Normally we wouldn't go all out, but this is a movie _marathon_. Therefore, these are special circumstances and require lots of snacks and comfortable places to lounge."

To emphasize this she added a quilt to her pillow, accepted drink Matt handed her, and settled herself on the end of the couch. To everyone's amusement Becker sat down next to her. Emily followed her lead and sat properly on the loveseat with Matt landing with a thump beside her. Abby also grabbed a pillow from the pile and took her place on the other side of Becker. Connor gathered a blanket and pillow for himself and sat on the floor in front of Abby in a well-practiced move.

Once everyone was comfortable _The Fellowship of the Ring_ was started. Emily and Matt quickly became engrossed in the film. The others were enjoying the older movie and letting its familiarity soothe their frayed emotions. By the time the Fellowship left Rivendell the morning's horrors had faded to a manageable pain. When Frodo and Sam left the Fellowship Emily was devastated, having no reference from the story.

"No! They can't abandon their friends," she cried.

Matt nodded his agreement while the rest of them laughed. Connor took pity on the pair. "Don't worry. There are two more movies."

"Well, you can't expect me to leave here without knowing what happens."

Abby looked at the clock. "It's not late. Why don't we take a short break while I order pizza and we can eat while we watch _The Two Towers_?"

Becker made a beeline for the refrigerator. "Anybody want a beer?"

While they waited on their food they all took Becker up on the offer of a drink. They stood around the kitchen table loaded with all the food that was bad for them and listened to Emily and Matt complain about the abrupt ending of the first film of the evening. A few drinks later the pizzas arrived and everyone loaded their plates and returned to their places to once again lose themselves in Middle Earth, only reemerging for refills. Becker had accepted Jess' offer of part of her quilt which ended up covering Abby as well. Emily had also nabbed a small blanket to cover her bare toes. In the dark room, lit only by the scenes on the television, the sextet became more and more relaxed and made themselves comfortable and all thoughts of anomalies and dinosaurs were banished from their minds by the battles of Middle Earth.

It was late when the film was over, but none of them were ready to call it a night so the trilogy's conclusion was begun. An hour later Jess' feet were propped up in Becker's lap and her head was lying on the plush arm of the sofa and she was sound asleep. Becker himself had stretched his legs out and fallen asleep where he sat. Matt had adopted a similar position, though he was still awake. Emily, too, was awake, engaged in the quest of the Fellowship, though she was now using Matt's shoulder as a pillow. Connor used his pillow and blanket to make himself quite comfortable on the floor and he was contentedly dozing. Within the next hour Abby's head had fallen to Becker's shoulder and she too was sound asleep. The early morning hours found Matt asleep as Emily fell into slumber to the end credits, still resting against Matt.

That night, despite the rough day and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, all of the ARC's core team slept peacefully without a nightmare, and it was the beginning of a tradition. Whenever the team had a day which could not easily be shrugged off and compartmentalized they congregated at one house or another. That evening would be spent playing games or catching Emily and Matt up on any number of movies. They would eat a lot of good food and drink more than they should, and one by one they would fall asleep where they were. Then, in the company of friends, the nightmares had no room to plague their nights.


End file.
